Five Hundred Words About Blood

 
There was once a little boy
He was scared of the world
A skinny weak little boy
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
He wasn’t fast enough to run away
So, he fought and took many ass kickings
It was ok though
He was fascinated with blood
The way that it tasted
Salty and warm
The way it looked on his knuckles
Gritty from railroad track gravel
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
The blood was always there
Like a friend in the streets
In the Spring rain, it was in pools  
At the bottom of the hill
In the Summer heat, it was jello
In the slaughterhouse lots
In the Fall, the leaves soaked it up
Bright and red
In the Winter, it froze like snow cones
Thick black cherry
He found out other kids
Didn’t like watching it spill on the ground
They didn’t like stomping in the bright red puddles
Walking home from school
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
They didn’t like watching the cows bleed out
They didn’t watch as their eyes turned blue
And their tongues fell limp
From the sides of their mouths
One day the little boy grew up
He was still scared of the world
He grew up enough to fight back and win
With calloused eyes shimmering with
Blue the blood reflected from his soul
He was still scared of the world
But would never show it
He still didn’t fit in with the other kids
He didn’t want to fit in
He wanted them to fear
He wanted them to bleed like the cattle did
From their death bed chutes
He wanted to beat them into submission
Until their eyes turned blue
And their tongues fell limp from their mouths
He wanted to stomp on their blood
Pooling in the streets
All it took was a little justification
For this scared little boy
Who was scared of the world
He didn’t want any friends
He wanted them to default on their loans
To feel the skin peel back from his knuckles
To hear the hollow thuds of fists on skull
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
The exhilaration of a gun in his face
A knife in his belly
Idle threats laughed off as a joke
He couldn’t wait to taunt them
When he was through with them
Only when he was through with them
A scared little kid
Who was scared of the world
The sensation of the blood rushing to his eyes
Screaming rubies in the dark
Thick blood, like a drug
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
Year after year death after death
Bullets flew and prison doors slammed shut
They never hit him, they never got him in a cage
They all died inside or out of sight but it didn’t matter
He didn’t fit in with the other kids
A scared little boy who was scared of the world